


pink as false sunrise

by Miss_I_Know



Series: The Colors of Haruno Sakura [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Although Ebisu Helps, And Lizards Are Scaly Babies, And We All Suffer, Aoba is a quarter Nara and Half-Uchiha but he won’t admit it under pain of death, Because I Love This Assassin Turned Adopted Parent, Blatantly - Freeform, But Developing Them, But still amazing, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Development For Spite, Child Soldiers, Correction Ino Is Very Gay, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone With Red Hair or Reddish Hair is an Uzumaki, Family, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Friendly Rivalry, Genma the One Man Maito Gai Defense Squad, Haruno Family Backstory, He Is A Scary Man, Hiruzen Is Not Just A Friendly Grandpa, His Endgame is more debated than Sakura, If We Go By the Manga Sakura Has No Backstory Just A Forehead and A Crush, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, In Her Defense It Has Been Awhile With Naruto, Ino Does Not Like Losing, Ino Is Probably A Little Gay, Japanese Culture, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Kakashi Will Probably Get Hitched At Some Point, Kunoichi After School Club, LGBTQ Female Character, LGBTQ Themes, Life Is Hard For Child Genuises, Male-Female Friendship, Mebuki Has Seen Shit, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mentions Of It In Reference To A Characters Past, Mother Hen Shiranui Genma, Multi, Ninjas Respect Sex Workers, Pairings Change Frequently, Pairings undecided, Past Child Abuse, Pedophilia, Rare Pairs For the Win, SI-OC, Sakura Fakes It Until She Makes It, Sakura Has PINK Hair, Sakura Is Not Good Around Pretty People, Sakura Uses Techniques From Other Anime, Sakura Will Make Female Friends Dammit, Sakura Will Make It A Thing, Sakura Worships Iruka, Sakura decides to focus on not dying and ignores Canon, Sakura does not have it in her to be the Fangirl, Sakura ‘Accidentally’ Plotting to Overthrow the Regime and Install a New World Order, Sakura's Mind Is Not Always A Happy Place, Sakura’s Love of Tobirama is Strong, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, Seriously Sakura Needs Stop Adopting Dangerous Wildlife, Sexual Assault, Shiho Is a Precious Angel, Snakes Are Beautiful Danger Noodles, So very very self-indulgent, Spirits and Yokai, Star Wars References, Stealth Crossover, Team as Family, Tenten is #Useless Lesbian, The Lets Murder Danzo Club, The Reason the Harunos Are In A Constant State of Honeymoon Phase is They Fucking Earned It, The Second Shinobi World War Wasn’t A Good Time For Anyone, Umino Iruka Fan Club, Unnecessary and Confusing Spoiler Filled Tags, Using Mebuki And Kizashi, Who Makes Bad Decisions, With Bad Taste In Friends, World Building For Profit and Pleasure, cherry picking canon, chosen family, i will die on this hill, liberal headcanon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:35:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22778041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_I_Know/pseuds/Miss_I_Know
Summary: Haruno Sakura in water color.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Original Character(s), Haruno Sakura & Shiranui Genma, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: The Colors of Haruno Sakura [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637518
Comments: 4
Kudos: 124





	pink as false sunrise

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Yeah, Kunai are cool but have you had dessert?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13704930) by [Authorship](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Authorship/pseuds/Authorship). 



> I have been lowkey planning this one for a year, but got dragged back into Star Wars and put it down. Now it has returned to my list of Projects Demanding Attention. 
> 
> This was inspired by all the excellent fics that exist already, but one especially made me want to write one for fun and you should definitely go read Authorship's fic if you haven't yet. Though if you are a fan of SI-OC I'm sure you have, especially if you are desiring a Civilian OC. Unfortunately, this one is not a Civilian!Sakura AU, though it does have quite a lot of focus on civilian life in Konoha. 
> 
> This is a vaguely outlined series of four interconnected fics that will cover different time periods Sakura's life.
> 
> "pink as false sunrise" will be the childhood and Academy years. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed planning and writing it!

Haruno Sakura had known since she was old enough to understand anything that she was mad. _Mad_ , not insane. The distinction may not have meant anything to someone who wasn’t Sakura, sometimes it didn’t make sense to her, but it was important. Sakura _was_ mad, completely and totally overwhelmingly mad, but she was also _sane_.

How could she not be mad with everything she knew and everything she had been forced to experience?

Madness was just a breaking of the mind after all. But just because her mind was a little broken did not mean she could not use it. It did not mean she could not process everything around her and think through her life logically. It did not mean that she suddenly became incapable of _living_.

Madness wasn’t something new to Sakura. Broken things could still be used. Her thrifty Mama had taught her that well enough. A broken cup could become a flower pot. A ruined dress could become a quilt. Most of her life she’d received things second hand, half-broken hand-me-downs. Sakura had learned well from her Mama that Broken did not equate _destroyed_.

And Sakura’s mind had been broken, been mad, before it had been _shattered_.

But she had not been destroyed. She’d glued herself together as Mama had taught her to. She had soothed herself with the unending love that she found in the wake of her suffering. She would never be like she was, but she was together. On a more poetic day she liked to think of herself as _kintsukuroi_. She had seen the gold laced pieces in art books and once in a museum exhibit and it had touched a part of her with an almost pleasant sort of pain to see that kind of beauty.

Now as Sakura, she laced her mind and soul together with the liquid gold of her new parents’ love and the knowledge that despite the insanity surrounding her and horror that lingered at the back of her mind she was _sane_. Her dreams, her past, her death were _real_. The knowledge inside her was dangerous, powerful, crippling and useless, but seeing the confirmation of this knowledge meant everything else was real.

She was Haruno Sakura, but she had been Juliet Chastain.

She was almost three years old, but she had been twenty-four.

She has her father’s red hair disguised as a light pink shade and her mother’s rare light green eyes, but she used to have her Mama’s face and curly cinnamon brown cloud of hair and a monster’s pale blue eyes.

She was named for her surprising hair and the cherry blossoms blooming as she was born, but she had been named by a great-grandmother, one kind act in a lifetime of sharp tongues.

Sakura was alive, but Juliet had died drowning in her own blood.

Sakura was both horribly real and a story, but Juliet had been real and was now just a child’s story.

She was not insane, because she understood her brokenness and _it was all real_.

/ : \

She had mourned for over two years, refusing to accept everything and piecing herself together in her silent madness. When she was finally able to breath and think without wanting to die she recognized who the people around her were.

Sakura in her practical madness, pushed aside the implications of recognizing her new parents and this new home of hers. As a child, playing sweet and regained innocence, what use was such knowledge anyway? Taking on the weight of that was the straightest path to insanity and Sakura had just finished dragging herself away from that edge. She, infinitely selfish and determined, instead chose to relish this new life and chance. This new family of hers.

Sakura made a conscious decision to give herself a chance to love these people, or at the very least, like them. When she stopped wallowing in her hurt and rage and pulled her frayed edges together enough to look beyond her own suffering she found the two strangers standing sentinel over her and a house quiet as death.

It had made her feel an inevitable stab of guilt. That initial waking up was _hard_ and these people had suffered for it. For whatever punishment had been inflicted on her had dragged them along as well. They should have had a normal happy baby to spoil. Instead they had gotten this difficult, broken little changeling.

Sakura had also felt touched though when she realized how attentive they were. They clung to her with a desperate sort of love and gave her all their energy.

She began responding the day she vowed to herself to _live_ again. She did her best to become a happy, sweet pretty baby that people dreamed about and to be open to such devotion.

It was surprising how easy it was to just lose herself in that love though.

( _Or maybe it was completely natural, the part of herself that always felt a half-orphan longing for the nebulous idea of family with a mother who left to protect them and a monster for a father. The part of herself that wanted the certainty and security that she’d never experienced. She’d had love. Never doubted that. But safety was something new._ )

It was slightly frightening to realize the control she had over her new parents emotions. Everything she did was treated like a miracle, praised and cooed over. Her first smile reduced Mebuki to open, body shaking sobs that had made passerby stare. When she reached for Kizashi the man had refused to put her down for hours, beaming through thick ugly tears. Her parents never questioned the sudden change from breathing doll to a living child instead looking at her in grateful awe.

Sakura couldn’t help soaking it up, that love and devotion felt more solid than any she’d been offered before. She couldn’t help but return it equally and do everything within her limited power to erase the fear that lingered in her parents and sorrow clinging to their eyes.

She began to settle in her new impossible life.

She clung to Kizashi’s fingers and Mebuki’s pants as she built her muscles up, relearning how to walk under their delighted gazes. Before long she was dancing on Kizashi’s toe tips to the humming of songs she didn’t understand and running after Mebuki like the world’s pinkest duckling. They barely had the opportunity to appreciate her first word, _kaachan_ , followed rapidly by, _touchan_ , before her unceasing chatter filled the quiet house chasing away the lingering shadows. She chirped like a bird, repeating every little thing they said and listened intently to every conversation to expand her lexicon.

It was a small world, with its boundaries barely going to the edge of the neighborhood around the house she spent her days in. And she was the center of her parents world. They were the sun and stars of hers though. As she put her effort in, they stopped being the guarding sentinels with lined faces and laughed and teased and smiled. They were bright and happy and so very, _very_ grateful. She loved these bright warm parents of her and never once doubted their love for her.

Choosing to love them was perhaps the best, easiest choice she ever made in her second life, leading to a warm time of peace and joy that was new to her. The first time in her living memory that she lived without that edge of darkness. It was the most peaceful time of her life.

/ : \

Those two things defined her and helped settle her into this new life.

Sakura was sane in her madness and she choose to love her parents.

They became the lodestones of her early existence. Even when things began to change and grow beyond their tiny bubble those remained.

/ : \

The day Sakura learned of the other Harunos started like any other day. Her father left for work a little earlier than normal, but he made sure to stop by her room and give her quick good-bye she returned with a half-asleep hug.

Kizashi was a Chunin. She knew that much from his flak jacket and the memory of a movie in another life. But she learned quickly he had an in-village position, something rather like a normal nine to five. He left and returned regularly always in uniform and every month, or what she estimated as such when she started keeping track of the calender’s page, he would be gone for three full days. Sakura wasn’t sure what exactly the position was, it wasn’t necessarily prestigious she concluded from their modest lifestyle, but it was steady and clearly paid well enough judging by the home. Despite his full time job he made sure to take an equal share in childcare and always made time for both her and Mebuki when he was home. He was also a great cook, even if he did like spicy foods to Mebuki’s displeasure.

Breakfast, a traditional Konoha meal, Mebuki insisted on that, with rice and carefully picked apart fish for Sakura, who was still rather clumsy with chopsticks, began the day. Sakura dozed in her plate and Mebuki filled the room with chatter and her characteristic energy.

Mebuki didn’t seem to be employed, though Sakura thought she remembered her mother having some ninja training and in the alternate timeline she was had been a skilled enough kunoichi to replace Kushina. Here Mebuki was the definition of a house-wife and stay at home mom. They spent all of their time together as she carried Sakura around the house and the neighborhood throughout the day. The neighborhood was actually a newer part of the schedule, and one Sakura greatly enjoyed for how it changed things up. For all that Mebuki seemed content to stay at home, she also had a restless edge that added spontaneity to their peaceful existence.

Mebuki filled her free time with a large array of hobbies. She had a garden they tended some days filled with hardy plants. All with practical uses from herbs to medicinal. She had baskets and baskets of yarn and cloth that made a rainbow in her craft room she would use for projects. After talking to one of the other women in the neighborhood, she had began hand making scrap books and decorating them with the pictures taken with the older style camera she and Kizashi used liberally. She would flit back and forth between these hobbies and the only thing she stayed faithful to was that for a couple hours each day she’d settle Sakura in a play pen to work through reading and replying to the large collection of letters the household received daily.

On days when Mebuki’s hobbies weren’t enough to curb her energy, now that Sakura was responsive, her mother would dress her up warmly and they’d go on a shopping trip or walk around the neighborhood. They never went passed the borders of the streets immediately surrounding the home, but it was definitely a treat. Sakura’s family lived just within sight of the mountain and sometimes she’d spend the entire trip eyeing the stone monument and looking desperately for the blurs of ninja jumping on roofs.

Only once had she actually caught sight of one. Just in time for the owner of the building to chuck a watering can at them for landing on her geraniums. Mebuki had been thoroughly confused but delighted by the sudden giggle fit. It had been minor, but the sight a ninja wearing the headband and the well-known mountain settled Sakura.

When Mebuki, after fidgeting with a half finished scarf and moving around different bits of cloth to form nothing, picked Sakura up and started dressing her for going outside she didn’t think anything of it. She had the tentative hope to see the nice granny who made sure to slip her sweets when they grabbed groceries and to pick up some more words as her lexicon was still smaller than she liked even with her habit repeating any new word.

Mebuki walked down the street without lingering, so Sakura assumed it to be walk to settle her mother’s nerves. She settled in comfortable in her knitted hat and coat, snuggling close to begin people watching.

She was staring intently at a woman in a modest lavender kimono with long black hair and trying to judge if the woman really did look like an Uchiha or if Sakura was projecting again. Then they passed the long held border of their neighborhood. It was a second-hand bookstore. The outside tables packed with boxes of books, Sakura eyed greedily when they got close enough, impatient to learn the alphabet and get her hands on those mismatched boxes and dive into treasure hunting.

Sakura blinked, long and slow as the store disappeared from sight and the streets, usually quite narrow and mainly residential, began to open up to a proper _main road_. Sakura stiffened, pressing herself tightly against Mebuki at the sudden increase in _people_ and _noise_. This area was the size of a four lane road and shops and stands decorated it, full of foot traffic. Mebuki moved to the edges away from most of the people hurrying on her way and muttering soothing nonsense as she stroked Sakura’s stiff back.

It wasn’t that she had never experienced a busy city street. Sakura had lived in a proper, brim to bursting city in her life, and Konoha was still half nature, but this was the most people she’d been around in the entirety of this life.

She’d grown used to a small world.

Sakura took a breath, taking strength from Mebuki’s presence, and forced herself to relax. There was no need to make her mother more uneasy, and she was realizing abruptly that Mebuki was uneasy. Her smile the polite one she offered particularly nosy neighborhood aunties who gave unasked for advise. Sakura wasn’t sure what the source of the stress was or the reason for the sudden break in routine. So, she wrapped her small chubby arms around Mebuki’s neck in a hug and rested her chin on the woman’s shoulder, looking out on this new environment through a shield of blonde hair. Mebuki pressed a kiss to the top of her head and her tense shoulders eased.

Sakura took that as a success.

They continued on the main road for good while, passing into an area with less of a crowd, but better looking shops and slowly narrowing roads. Without warning Mebuki ducked into alley hidden by a half wall jutting out the side of a tea house that was covered in flowering vines. She passed through and into a much narrower road with a completely different look to the other main way. The buildings were pressed against each other and the crowd was scattered but busy and blessedly more quiet. The shops did not have signs, but were rather colorful and with what occasionally looked like a clan symbol decorating them. The most startling change was the appearance of the people.

Almost everyone in this section wore a headband marking them as a ninja.

It was a _ninja street_. Sakura felt a quick delighted warmth spread in her chest at this discovery chasing away much of her unease. She looked around rapidly taking in the street and its colorful inhabitants.

Mebuki’s gait changed as they continued, becoming smoother, more confident even as she seemed to self-soothe by petting Sakura’s hair absently. Clearly, her mother knew this area well and felt comfortable here. Sakura turned her head to see their destination as Mebuki began to slow down. Not quite hesitating.

In front of them, a couple buildings down, was a white, red-framed building that stood out with its scarlet roof and wide glass windows. It was shorter than its neighbors, one story, but squat and wider than the others. Through the glass she could see displays of scrolls and ink brush sets. It took Sakura a moment to place the meaning of the simple sign that hung on a simple metal frame by the top of the door.

A red background and a perfect white circle.

That was _their_ family symbol.

Mebuki’s chest, and Sakura with it, shook as the woman took a subtle steadying breath and entered the building, a small tinkling bell being the only alert to the silent movements. The inside was pleasant, peaceful even with the cool air that signaled the rare and expensive presence of an air conditioning system. The shop was open with different inks and brushes arrayed on one side and on the other hundreds of kinds of papers, scrolls, and notebooks neatly arranged. Sakura had no real basis for the world yet, but it felt like a mostly high-end shop especially in the mostly deserted area displaying spread out blank scrolls and stacks of bound blank papers. Some of the open scrolls were decorating the wall and had writing on them that she, unfamiliar as she was with the art, suspected was calligraphy.

Near the front their was a small huddle of young kunoichi looking over a display that was made of a single wooden pole and branching arms with leaves of small papers with writing on them hanging on strings. At the back a older man with a heavily lined face surrounded by thick graying hair was comparing two brushes that looked near identical to Sakura’s quick gaze.

Mebuki looked around the shop, but she must have not found whatever, or whomever, she was looking for. She approached the front area with a long wooden bar separating the area from the customers. Behind the bar was a wall covered with three large decorative scrolls equally apart and a small door. A woman was manning it in a red-and-white uniform with a neatly pressed ankle-length skirt and buttoned blouse. Sakura, out of practice though she was with people not in her small family, saw the way her whole face tightened at the sight of Mebuki’s modest but neat appearance and lack of clear shinobi gear. The expression smoothed out instantly, but the woman’s body language became almost deliberately relaxed with a too tight smile.

“How may I help you Customer-san?” the woman said with perfect courtesy, but a cool voice.

Mebuki didn’t react beyond bringing up her own smile more insistently and straightening up, but Sakura could feel the undercurrent of _you-don’t-belong-here_ present there.

“I am here to visit Hirohito-san,” Mebuki said calmly.

The woman’s face didn’t falter at this announcement. “Haruno-sama does not see customers without a previous appointment and is currently quite busy.”

Sakura stared at the woman intensely. Haruno? She felt her stomach twist up. That meant this was definitely a family visit and probably an unplanned one.

“Then it is good that I am not a customer,” Mebuki continued smooth. “Please alert Hirohito-san that _Haruno_ Mebuki has come to visit.”

This did cause a reaction, a brief moment of genuine panic before the woman regained her composure. She nodded at Mebuki and excused herself with a slight bow. The woman passed out of sight through a door into a back hallway and the waiting was tense as Sakura tried to wrap her mind around the fact she apparently had an _extended family_. Was Hirohito an uncle? A grandfather? A cousin? Mebuki meanwhile seemed to be caught up in her own thoughts, standing with deliberate relaxation as she braided her fingers through Sakura’s hair.

The quiet of the shop was interrupted by the sound of a large crash followed quickly by what must have been a slamming door and running feet. Everyone was staring by the time the door to the back was thrown open by a man in a fine blue haori and white-and-blue hakama. He had dark auburn hair smoothed back out of his face and a matching neatly cut beard. It went well with his friendly, handsome face. He beamed at the sight of them, unconcerned with his staring customers, rushing over, somewhat graceless, in his rush to them. Mebuki stiffened and drew back, but caught herself and relaxed when the grinning stranger grabbed her shoulders. Sakura meanwhile burrowed close to her mother even as her eyes traced over a face with a very _familiar_ nose and Sakura’s broad forehead.

“Imouto-san!” the man, clearly the Haruno Hirohito they’d come for, said voice loud and thrilled. His dark eyes flickered to Sakura and widened, even as she flinched. “And Sakura-chan too!”

“Hirohito-san,” Mebuki said, sounding distinctly relieved.

“Nii-san for you,” Hirohito said with soft correction and stepped back, releasing Mebuki’s soldiers. He was practically vibrating.

Mebuki nodded, but didn’t say anything and Hirohito gestured, wide and dramatic, back to the door he’d burst through.

“Let’s get settled in my office,” Sakura’s uncle (?) said. “I’m sure there is much to discuss.”

/ : \

This turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration, at least at first, as the two settled into Hirohito’s back office and spent the first ten minutes quietly drinking tea and looking at each other with an amazed silence. Any movement from Sakura triggered a very polite sort of gaping on her newly found uncle’s part as if even the smallest reaction was a tremendous shock. Sakura supposed it was a somewhat fair reaction given her previous state and coming from someone she could never remember seeing since her change. Fair or not, it was still uncomfortable to be stared at not with her parents loving awe, but the same fascination one would give a dog that suddenly sat up and began speaking. Sakura tucked her face into Mebuki’s side, resolving to ignore the man for her own sanity and was forced to endure what seemed an eternity of silence.

“She’s so much more active,” Hirohito said, thoughtful from behind Sakura. She refused to look back, face cushioned under her mother’s arm.

“Yes,” Mebuki said voice slow and laced with a familiar awe. “She’s been walking and talking for a few months now. She just looked up at us one day and things changed. It was like she’d been dreaming until that moment.”

Sakura moved her body into something more closely resembling a hug, knowing the bone deep scar that two years of insanity, a waking nightmare for everyone, had left.

“A few months?” Hirohito said, voice soft and something more implied with his words.

“Yes,” Mebuki said, voice firm and unapologetic with just an edge of steel. “We wanted to insure it wasn’t a fluke.”

Hirohito didn’t say anything, but he must have made some kind of gesture or acknowledgement, because Mebuki let out a soft almost imperceptible exhale. A tension bled out of their interaction and both spoke with slightly warmer, more relaxed voices.

“We’d be happy to welcome her home,” Hirohito said all warmth. “We have a good collection of seeds still set aside from when we were prepping for her birth.”

“I thought we could introduce her to everyone slowly. She’s still a little shy,” Mebuki said and there was a pause during which Sakura could _feel_ the two adults gazing at her. She, perhaps a little childishly, remained hidden, not wanting to deal with the fallout of having _more family_.

“Kizashi was the same when he was her age,” Hirohito said, voice trembling with amusement and laughter. “He would grab onto my pants or hide in Kazuha’s skirts anytime the cousins would visit. Never tried to hide behind Kaa-san. He knew she’d throw him in the middle of the group rather than indulge him.”

Mebuki laughed, genuine and horsey, and it was enough for Sakura to look up and over at Hirohito. Her new uncle was smiling, smaller and sincerely, and she could see the edge of Kizashi in his eyes.

“Hiro-ji,” Sakura said slowly, deliberately announcing the nickname paired with the suffix. Two sets of eyes snapped to her instantly and Sakura stuck out her chin, firm in her decision. Whatever had caused her parents to splinter from the family, and she had a bad feeling she was partially to blame, any person who could make her mother genuinely smile would likely be worth at least acknowledging their relation. Even if she wasn’t sure if she was ready to be inviting more family in just yet.

Hirohito choked on his tea and Mebuki smiled proudly, green eyes warm.


End file.
